Golden Anidae (A Blushing Death Novel) (21 page)

The blood wall of protection beat with every tick of my heart. So much blood, mine, Soraida’s, Enza’s, Marabelle’s, and now Jarvis’. The wall swirled with shifting shades of crimson as all the blood answered to me. Expanding beyond the room, the protection wall seeped through the walls of the house. Hisses of angry vampires reverberated through the marble tomb as I forced them farther and farther away from us. They knocked and beat on the blood to get through but it was mine. The wall was me, mine to control and wield. It was Patrick, and it was Dean. My shoulders finally slumped as the wall hit fresh air.

“Ev . . . shift. You’ll heal,” I said in a tired and defeated tone after he limped over to me and rubbed against my leg. Whining, he turned his head back to Enza, still clutching her knees in the corner. “You need to heal before we can get the hell out of here and she won’t tell.”

I strode over to Enza and crouched down in front of her. I placed my hand on hers and she jumped, almost out of her skin at my touch.

Glancing up at me with tears in her eyes, she whimpered, “They’re dead. You killed them all.” She didn’t stammer so I was pretty sure she’d be okay.

“I did.”

“Who are you?”

“You know who I am,” I answered her with confidence and a crocked smile. She may not have known about all this craziness that I carried around with me, but she knew
ME
. Her gaze was like a laser boring into me, searching for something she recognized. Shaking, she took my hand in hers.

“Yeah, I do.” She sighed. “Can we go home now?”

“Well, we can go to the hospital, but, yeah, let’s get outta here,” I said, helping her to her feet. I turned to find two naked men waiting for me.

“What’s the plan?” Everett asked with a relieved smile. He rotated his forearm at the elbow where Jarvis had broken his front leg.

“We need to get her to a hospital and probably fake a car accident or something. Any ideas?” I asked as we made our way to the door and out into the hall. The blood wall had cleared a path for us. Everett picked Enza up and carried her out as she clung to him like a princess in a fairy tale. It was sweet really.

“Ms. Sabin, it would be my pleasure to arrange an accident for you,” Raiden said with the first smile I’d seen crest his lips since I’d met him.

Chapter 19

Everett parked the car at the curb but didn’t turn the ignition off. We sat in silence for a long while as I stared at the modern structure and the stillness that fell over the house.

Cordero Salazan was dead. I shouldn’t feel so apprehensive about going into his house. His precinct might search for him but no one would ever find him. The desert is a very big place.

I was done. Done with Vegas, done with running, and done ignoring my responsibilities back home. I wanted to be done with this mess but there was one last thing I had to do. There was something in that house that belonged to me.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Everett whispered in the soft stillness before dawn.

“I’ll only be a minute,” I said, opening the car door.

“But we’re breaking into a cop’s house!”

“A cop that I killed a few hours ago,” I said in a harsh whisper.

Had it really only been a few hours? It all seemed like a lifetime ago. But the caked and dried blood on my body reminded me just how recent his death had been.

“I have more than a simple B&E to worry about. Plus, I have a key. So we’re not breaking in. Just entering,” I finished, stepping from the car.

“Daaahhhllliiiaaa,” he whined as quietly as he could so his voice wouldn’t carry through the open door.

“You don’t have to go with me. I should only be in there a minute. Just stay here,” I ordered, closing the door on him. He slouched back into the driver’s seat and pouted. It was better for him to stay in the car anyway. He would just slow me down.

I walked up to the front door, drawing the house key I’d swiped from the fake rock from my pocket. I slipped it into the lock and said a silent prayer that nothing was waiting for me on the other side. It had been a long damned night.

Shoving the door open, the obsessive, neat-freak stillness that had once given me the creeps seemed almost peaceful. The blood spatter on the couch was a nice touch to the décor.

I moved through the empty dark house without hesitation. My eyes adjusted to the low light and the sliver of dawn slipping over the privacy wall. Making my way directly to Cordero Salazan’s office where the hum of
my
Gladius called to me, I reveled as magic coiled through my mind and body.

The blade glowed faintly in the lights streaming in from the windows overlooking the pool. My eyes were transfixed on the wall as the power from the Gladius sang in delight with each step forward I took.

“Time to go home, kitten.”

I reached out, stroked the cool blade like a lover. Its power tingled against my fingertips and up my arm, singing with magic. Sliding my fingers down its blade and over the etched hilt, I wrapped my fingers around the handle and removed it from the wall. The sword was so light, sailing through the air like twisting light in my hand. It fit perfectly in my grip, moving to my will as my power mingled with the sword’s magic. I knew in my gut that it belonged to me.

Walking into Cordero Salazan’s bedroom, I ripped both pillowcases from the pillows on the bed. I wrapped the blade in the 800 thread count sheets and tucked it under my arm.

“Let’s go home,” I said as I stalked out of the bedroom. I left the house and all of Cordero Salazan’s secrets behind, wiping my fingerprints from everything as I went.

Chapter 20

I hid around the corner and waited until visiting hours were over. I wanted to sneak in to see Enza before I left and say goodbye.

Her mother finally left but only after the nurse nudged her out. Waiting until her mom and Nurse Ratchet were out of sight and down the hall, I snuck into Enza’s room and closed the door. She glanced up from her magazine and grinned at me. I was relieved to see the smile on her face. I’d had a real fear she’d never want to see me again.

“Hey,” she rasped, closing the magazine and dropping it on her lap. Her voice was still hoarse from screaming, and the sound of her sultry rasp tugged at my gut.

“Hiya,” I said. I plopped down on the bed next to her, careful not to jostle the IV still in her arm. “How ya feelin’?”

“I’m ready to get outta here,” she said as she flicked her index finger across the IV tubing.

She’d lost a lot of blood in the
car crash
and had broken a few ribs. She was bruised up pretty bad and just starting to turn a lighter shade of purple. She was on the mend and soon those bruises would turn a pretty shade of green.

“I bet.”

“Where’ve you been? I’ve been waiting three whole days to talk to you,” she chastised me.

For the first day and a half, I slept and tried to heal my own wounds. The second day, I packed and gave away what wouldn’t fit on my bike. The third day, I’d had to talk to Barry. I wanted to make sure Rupert had healed both physically and mentally. Marabelle and her colony had done some awful things to him. I’d had to make sure the Pack would survive. I knew now they wouldn’t. They needed an Alpha, a real Alpha to take care of them. Fast. They needed someone before a shit of an alpha moved in and took advantage of them, or worse, tortured them like Marabelle and Cordero Salazan had.

“I had a few things I needed to get straightened out before . . .” I hesitated.

“Before you left,” she finished for me with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Yeah,” I said, fidgeting with my fingers in my lap and picking at the leg of my jeans. “It’s time.” She shouldn’t be in the hospital and she shouldn’t be involved in anything that had to do with my life. It was time for me to go home and better for her the sooner I went.

“So, uh,” she started. “Those people that you said Soraida was mixed up with . . . not drug dealers . . . huh?”

“No, not drug dealers,” I said. “She was mixed up with people like me.”

“You’re better than they are,” she said, peering up at me from under her lashes. She was smiling at me with a bright encouraging light in her eyes. “I love you. You know that, right? I know that this probably has something to do with the big rift between you and your parents but if they saw how brave you are and how respected you are? They’d understand.” She jerked me into her arms, embracing me. I should have been the one comforting her. The first hot tear trailed down my cheek and I turned my face into her neck as I clung to her.

“I love you, too,” I whispered into her hair.

“Now, go home and fix whatever hot mess you’ve created for yourself and call me when you get there,” she ordered, letting me go. “You’re gonna be all right,” she said with confidence and a quick nod as she brushed a tear from her cheek.

“I think I will be.”

I woke up bright and early, almost before the sun was up. The light over the horizon was still gray as I opened the front door of Enza’s house. I was going to miss this place. The house and Enza had been my home for a time but I had my own life to get back to.

A heap of crinkled clothing, unshaven five o’clock shadow, and scruffy unkempt hair, lay across the front stoop, blocking my path. Asleep, Everett’s limp body seemed peaceful but unprotected. He was wedged against the house with a duffle bag under his head like a pillow. His scrawny, lanky body curled into a ball.

“Everett, what are you doing here?” I snapped, already agitated. It was early. I had a long ride ahead of me. And I hadn’t had any coffee. At the sound of my sharp voice, he jumped to his feet like the agile predator he was. I didn’t like talking first thing in the morning, especially before the sun was up. Having to reprimand a wayward werewolf wasn’t top on my list.

“Take me with you,” he said, groggy and surprisingly demanding. His navy blue eyes were wide and his expression desperate. “Please.”

“Ev,” I breathed.

“There’s nothing left for me here.”

“You won’t have a job and Dean’s Pack is different than what you have here. Hell, Columbus is different than here. It snows there,” I said, grasping at anything I could think of to make him see reason. “Do you even own a coat?” No matter how many reasons I listed for him to stay, my Eithina voice kept whispering,
He’s ours. Bring him home
.

“I don’t care,” he said, straightening his back and thrusting his shoulders back. “I’ll buy a coat. I want to go with you.”

There was a little piece of me that was proud of him for standing up for himself, voicing what he wanted. Another piece of me was pissed beyond belief that he was ruining my plans.

“All I’ve got is my bike,” I started but he cut me off.

“That’s okay,” he said, grinning from ear to fucking ear. “I brought my car and picked up a tow trailer last night.” He snatched up his duffel bag from the front stoop and strode to the car. Parked along the curb was a ten-year-old Honda with a tow trailer hooked up to the rear fender. I guess I had a traveling buddy.

“Well, if you’re driving then I need some coffee before we head out. Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” I asked, resigned.

We drove for a full day straight, sleeping in shifts, stopping on the second evening at a motel along the highway somewhere in Illinois. Everett was antsy from being cooped up for so long and needed to run. Shifting with him, we ran through his first field of tall grass and corn.

The grass and ground across the field were wet under my paws from the previous day’s rain. Water sloshed between the pads of my paws as we chased a rabbit into the corn stalks. Everett wasn’t surprised at my change but waited patiently for me to keep up on unsteady legs. As the night wore on, I got better. By dawn, on a full stomach of rabbit, quail, and field mice, Everett curled up under a tree and fell asleep. I curled around him to shield him from the cool April air and closed my eyes.

My Eithina breathed a sigh of relief.

We were safe, full, and on our way home.

Chapter 21

“Leave the motor running and don’t you dare drive away from this spot. I’ll be out in a minute,” I ordered.

Everett gawked at me with wide eyes.

Parked in front of Damsel, I was nervous. More nervous than I wanted to be or admit and I snapped at him. I turned to glance out the passenger window and a familiar face smiled back at me with a wide unabashed grin. I smiled back at Nova’s radiant face and felt just a little relief as some of my anxiety disappeared.

Nova jerked the door open, the metal squealing under his strength. Ripping me from the passenger seat, he clung to me in a gigantic hug. I laughed, feeling light and free for the first time in so long, I couldn’t remember.

“Nova, put me down.” I giggled as he spun me around. I couldn’t help the smile that forced my cheeks up.

“Not a chance, my little flower,” he said, hugging me tight. “You might get away again and I can’t let that happen.”

A soft growl reverberated in my ears from the other side of the car and Nova froze. I glanced over my shoulder, across the roof of the beat-up Honda Civic at Everett in surprise.

“Don’t you touch her,” he growled, his top lip curling up in a threatening snarl. He stood in the open driver’s side door with his hands on the roof as if he’d hop over it to get at Nova. His eyes flashed the sea-foam green of his wolf as if ready to pounce to protect me.

I smiled and patted Nova’s shoulder so he’d put me down to placate the kid. Columbus wasn’t Las Vegas and Ev had a learning curve to overcome.

“Everett, this is Nova,” I said with reassurance. “Nova, this is Everett.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Nova said, his most charismatic smile gracing his beautiful face. Nova was the kind of beautiful that artists dreamed of to shape in clay or marble. The line of women waiting to get into Damsel, due in part to the club itself, but it was also due to Nova. His devious yet delicious smile, his bright blue eyes, hair the color of polished obsidian, and the lean yet muscular line of his body made every woman in line think less of the man beside her. With that smile, Nova made everyone feel as if they were the most important person in the world. Everett was no different.

The kid stopped growling at the introduction but didn’t get back in the car.

“He’s a vampire?” Everett asked, his voice booming in a way I’d never heard him speak before. He was trying very hard not to be insignificant and submissive.

“Yes, he is,” I said with a smile. “He’s my friend.” With as much compassion as I could, I said, “I told you things were different here. Maybe Nova can fill you in. I have something important to do.”

Turning back to Nova, I asked, “Is he inside?” I hoped neither Nova nor Everett heard the slight quiver in my voice.

“He is. They both are, actually,” he answered.

“I’ll be quick.”

“Aren’t you going to stop and say hello?” Nova asked, catching my hand in his. I understood the question in his glare. He wanted everything to be as it was before I left and I couldn’t promise that.

“I’m just going to make my presence known so that when he’s ready . . .” I couldn’t finish that sentence without a lump lodging in my throat. Maybe Patrick would never be ready.

I wouldn’t think about that.

“My little flower,” he said, brushing a stray hair from my cheek. “He knew you were coming the minute you hit his territory.”

That stopped me in my tracks. I finally turned, glaring back at Nova with a scowl.

“Go on then, make your stand,” he said, directing me toward the door. “I’ll look after your pup.” His reassuring smile meant more than I wanted to admit.

I strode into the club. The steady thump of the house music hit me like a brick in the chest. Striding by the coat check without a glance, I acknowledged the new girl with a quick nod. I didn’t stop when she called.

I bullied and jabbed my way through the crowd, around the bar and down the two steps onto the dance floor. It took me a few minutes of moving, bumping, grinding, and plain old shoving to get to the center of the dance floor.

Taking a deep breath, I filled my lungs with the hot stench of body heat, alcohol, and sex. I turned my face up to the ceiling where I knew everyone in the office above would see my face through the one-way mirrored floor/ceiling of Patrick’s club office. After making a complete circle, I released the breath I’d been holding in a huff of tension and dread. I made my way back off the dance floor, being belligerent when the dancers wouldn’t get out of the way. My heart thundered in my ears, pounding a frantic pace in my chest. Uncertainty lingered in my gut, making me nauseous as I squeezed between bodies slick with sweat. I had to get out of this club or I’d throw up.

When the crowd thinned, I ran. I didn’t give a shit if they could still see me through the ceiling. I couldn’t bear the weight of disappointment when he didn’t come. When neither Patrick nor Dean came and wrapped me in their arms. So much for standing my ground. Bursting out into the cool April air, I wiped a tear from my cheek.

I don’t know what I’d expected. I’d been doing nothing but thinking, dreaming, even fantasizing since we’d escaped that damned marble tomb. I wanted Patrick to take me in his arms, tell me he understood and that he’d forgiven me. Somehow, I’d convinced myself that’s what would happen when I showed my face inside that club. When Nova had hugged me, I thought everything would be fine. But when I stepped onto the sidewalk from the club’s front door . . . alone, I knew everything was
not
all right.

“How’d it go?” Nova asked with a quick smile.

“Fine,” I said, breezing by him.

“Hey, are you . . .?” he asked, reaching for me.

I dodged, moving out of his reach. I was already crying but if Nova touched me, I’d collapse into a fit of tears. I
really
didn’t want to do that. Not in public anyway. There was time enough to hide and cry later.

“Fine,” I snapped. “We’ll be at the Westin if you need me.” Slamming the car door, I shut the world out.

“Okay?” Nova said, his voice unsure. “It was nice meeting you, Everett. We’ll talk later. Hopefully,” Nova added under his breath.

Everett waved over the car and slipped into the driver’s side. He didn’t say a word, not a question, and not one complaint. He turned the ignition and pulled away from the curb. I appreciated that of him.

“The Westin is two blocks up and then make a left. It’s another two blocks on your left,” I said, sinking into my seat and hiding my eyes in my hand. Staring out the passenger-side window, I watched the familiar city pass us by. A band tightened around my chest as my breath hitched. They’d let me walk out, let me go.

I didn’t get the chance to cry. After checking into the Westin—I paid for two rooms, by the way—Everett barged into mine. He didn’t want to be alone in a new city. I think he was worried about me but I couldn’t tell the difference between general worry and specific worry. He slept on the suite couch in my room, close enough to hear my sobs. So I kept quiet, saving the crying until I was good and truly alone.

Lying in the dark, I stared at the ceiling, trying my damnedest not to turn my face into my pillow and sob openly. However, with a submissive, over-emotional, and already wounded werewolf in the next room, letting my emotions run wild wasn’t really an option. I didn’t want to have to talk about my feelings. I didn’t even know what they were. I especially didn’t want to explain to Everett how badly I’d hurt the people I loved. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on nothing but the sound of my breath leaving my lungs. One breath after another until everything faded to black.

“Should we wake her up?” a familiar, deep, male voice rumbled in the dark.

My eyes fluttered open but my body froze. I’d managed to fall into a fitful sleep and I wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t dreaming. If I was dreaming, I didn’t want to wake up.

“I want to but it looks like she’s been tossing and turning. She probably needs her sleep,” Patrick’s voice said in a concerned whisper.

My heart fluttered at the thought of Patrick and Dean actually in my hotel room, here, worried about me.

“Ah, she’s up.” Dean chuckled softly. “Might as well turn the lights on and get a good look at her,” he said, seemingly disinterested. But I knew better.

The smell of his musk filled the room and his scorching power called to me in the dark, Gaoh to Eithina. I sat up in bed, rustling the blankets as Dean hit the switch. The room was flooded with artificial white light and I shrank away from the glare. It was a moment or two until I could readjust to it.

I brushed my hair out of my face and sat in the middle of the bed, uncertain. Dean smiled like a kid on Christmas morning. An expression that not many got to see and my heart raced as his olive-green eyes met mine. I’d caused that silly grin turning up the corners of his lips.

Patrick, on the other hand, glared at me. The muscles along his neck and shoulders tightened and his eyes darted from me to anywhere else in the room as if he couldn’t bear to look at me. His jaw was a line of solid granite and he clenched an envelope in his hand like it was his last remaining link to life.

“I think we can go now,” Patrick snapped.

“Wait!” I called before I could think of what to say next.

Everett burst through my bedroom door with a fire poker in his hand, bouncing in on the balls of his feet, and growling. I rolled my eyes but Patrick snatched the back of Everett’s neck and lifted him from the ground. His elegant hands reached out in a lithe movement that Ev never saw coming. Patrick lifted the kid from the ground, raising him by the throat to meet his dark, intense gaze. Dean ripped the fire poker from Ev’s hand in a sharp, wrench and tossed it to the floor. Dean breathed deep, taking a big whiff of Everett’s scent.

“Who are you?” Dean growled, a territorial warning to his words, making things low in my body tighten and heat. Dean’s adrenaline spiked and his musk filled the air. He was going to defend his territory, me, to the death. His bulky body tensed and the light from the hotel lamps shimmered the olive complexion of his clean-shaven head.

Whimpering, Everett shrank at the sight of a real Alpha.
My big protector. Hah!

“Let him go,” I said, amusement tinkling in my voice.

“Why should we?” Dean growled, his eyes shifting to a bright Caribbean blue as his wolf inched to the surface.

“Because he belongs to me,” I growled back, showing my grit. All the self-pity I’d been wallowing in the whole night disappeared at the sight of Everett scared. He needed me to protect him. If Dean wanted to get territorial, I sure as hell could do that, too. I loved him but I wouldn’t let him hurt what was mine.

Turning to me in surprise, his wolf prickled along the surface. He evaluated me for only a moment, taking in my squared shoulders and my stiff jaw. He met my gaze, giving me a half smile that curled my damned toes.

“Pat, you can drop the pup. He’s no threat,” Dean said, the soft growl rumbling from his chest made me weak in the knees.

Patrick dropped him, wiping his hands on his slacks as if he’d touched something dirty. Typical.

“You got a room, pup?” Dean asked, his Caribbean blue eyes focused entirely on me.

“Y-Y-Yes,” Ev stammered and backed away, scooting on his ass in a crab walk. Gazing up at the two men towering over him, I could see the confusion and question on Ev’s face. Had he made a mistake coming here? I was sure no matter how different Columbus was from Vegas, Ev would find his way. He had me.

“Then find it. We have business,” Dean ordered.

Everett peeked up at me from around Dean’s leg for reassurance, or permission, I couldn’t tell which. I nodded with a reassuring smile and he was gone in the blink of an eye.

“Did you mean it?” Patrick hissed, forcing the words out as if they were sharp.

“Mean what?”

“The letter,” he snapped. “What you wrote in this letter?”

I felt the blood rush from my face, chilling my body in a room filled with Dean’s scorching power. Clutching the letter written by my own hand up to me in a tight fist until the paper was wrinkled and unrecognizable, he stared at me. My heart thundered in my chest.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked, mortified.

“Smells like the pup,” Dean said with a faint smile.

“Nova handed them over to us just after you left
Damsel
,” Patrick snarled, sounding on edge and dangerous.

A tear slid down my face as my reserve crumbled. “He was only supposed to give those to you if I died.”

“You never said what to do with them if you lived,” Everett yelled from out in the hall.

Chuckling softly to himself, Dean smiled. “With submissives, you gotta be specific or they interpret the directions the way they want to understand them.”

“Did you mean the sentiments expressed?” Patrick asked again, anger flaring his nostrils. His hands trembled as he clutched the letter in his fist.

Opening the emotional shields I’d kept closed for so long, I let his rage hit me. I deserved to know everything he felt and much more for deserting him, for deserting all of them. I met his dark eyes and held my chin up, letting his anguish sink into me. But I also allowed my regret and sorrow to flow from me, in the hopes that he would at least understand.

“Yes. I still do,” I said. My voice quaked, only a tremor. I barely noticed but I was sure both and Patrick and Dean had. He ripped the letter open, stretching the paper tight until I thought he would tear it to shreds.

“My Dearest Patrick,” he spat out without looking up at me. “If you’re reading this, then I’m not coming home to you.” The words hitched in his throat, sounding harsh but I heard the pain he was trying to hide. “I’m going to try to explain everything as best as I can but I don’t have a lot of time. How to start? I blamed myself for both Danny and Amblan’s deaths.” His voice quavered as he read.

I remembered how helpless he felt when Amblan had died and how much I wanted him to be able to help me. That same pain was in his voice now, resonating in every fiber of his being, straight into me.

“I blamed myself for everything. I know now that Danny’s death wasn’t my fault but Amblan’s death was. I’m still wrestling with that. She may not have died by my hand but I failed her. I wasn’t strong enough to leave her behind. Because of my arrogance, my selfishness, I didn’t prepare her for what could happen. I left her vulnerable.”